overall fitness development for an absolute beginner

[theglue]

so recently i havent had access to a gym, and was researching alternative ways to stay in shape without the use of weight training. i read up on some articles online and got hooked in by the sheer degree of active strength and carryover potential many athletes are able to acquire through bodyweight training. thus i set about making a new years resolution of achieving a planche pushup and back+front lever pulls this year. while i realize that for an absolute beginner to achieve this without solid fundamentals is fairly impractical, i believe that the process will prove to be rewarding regardless of how long it takes. that said, ill launch into my questions:

back lever: according to beastskillz, the back lever is an A-level gymnastics move and an individual with 'a bit of pullup and dip strength' might even be able to pull the skill off in his first try. now i definitely didnt expect to get the back lever down on my first try, but i didnt think getting it would be so difficult! i can barely slow my descent when trying to fall through to a skin the cat with a straight core, both legs tucked. and i dont know how to work up to that level. i can do 20 regular pullups and 30 bodyweight dips consecutively with strict form, so im assuming that beastskillz' definition of 'a bit' of strength is my definition of godliness. also, im about 6 feet fall so i have a disadvantageous leverage. what should i do to build up to a back lever if i cant even fall through the position with tucked legs, let alone one leg straight, straddle, etc? i dont have access to rings, so iv been working on a bar.

planche pushup: like most people, i got the bent-arm frogstand for 60 seconds extremely quickly. i am now attempting the straight arm frog stand, which i believe requires you to lean forward a lot more than the bent-arm version. like a lot of people at this stage, i am experiences problems straightening my arms, and whenever i try this move my arms fluctuate rapidly between locked and unlocked. is this a strength issue or a neurological barrier? the straight-arm frogstand is also a lot more demanding on the wrists, especially since i dont have access to paralletes and must perform all these exercises on the ground. after doing these exercises, my fingers make a lot of popping sounds. is this healthy? are there any wrist strengthening workouts i can slip into my routine apart from wrist pushup variations that would carryover to my planche work? at my stage, should i be doing pseudo-planche pushups at all, or should i stick with the straight-armed frogstand -> tuck planche for now?

also, iv been trying to incorporate some other bodyweight exercises into my routine, notably wall-handstands, wall headstand pushups, l-sits, wall extensions and simply holding the starting position of the ag walk shown in video

. can a combination of these exercises lead to a balanced upper body/core program, or am i missing anything crucial? and do any of these exercises carry over to the body levers and planche pushups i am aiming for?

i realize that im being greedy and asking for a lot of advice in one thread, and that i tend to be a bit wordy, but i figured this would be better than starting up multiple threads. iv read through most of what i could find out there online, so there arent many articles im aware of that i havent at least glanced over. feel free to answer just just a few or even one specific question if you dont have time or dont want to deal with everything i threw out there but if you have plenty of free time and/or a lot of patience and love in your heart, could you please give me as much specific advice as possible? thanks in advance!

[theglue]

..or not?

[Blairbob]

BL is gonna be tough at that height as is FL or PL. Work skin the cats and basically the negatives from inverted hang. Tuck really tight. Squeeze everything from your neck to your toes. I knew a young man that was a skinny 6 foot but could do one arm negatives and climb rope like a monkey. However, lever moves were very difficult for him to learn and he was pretty light. Skinny, ripped but it takes dedicated practice and training that midline besides just pull and push strength. Work Hang L/L-sit and body lever.

Your fingers are popping merely because there is a lot of tension in them.

PVC parallettes cost about 15 bucks to make. You could also use stacks of books or hex DB.

It takes time and practice to learn how to lock the arms out. It's not exactly comfortable if the movement is stressful.

This is why I made this:

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1794